Sun, 25th Aug, 2024 Bush camp on 4 Mile Common, Marble Bra to Bush camp, Upper Mosquito Creek, east of Nullagine, WA

20 degrees and still under a clear sky. Steve coloured my hair - such a good husband but he doesn’t want me going grey either!

8am the breeze is back and the day is warming up. The others have arrived in Marble Bar so we headed in to meet them. They were topping up their water tanks. We already did but we have our buckets to fill too so we headed off to Nullagine to do it there.

Back out the 8km to the turn off to Nullagine (94km) and onto the gravel road. Steve had already let some air out of the tyres so we were all good.

Sturt Desert Peas along the roadside brighten up the drive. Up and down then through the hills.

The road is good then we found the grader parked up and the next half was in need of a grade!

Another nice entrance sign.

Into the park at Nullagine and Steve got to work filling up our buckets so we can stay out longer to do our detecting. I checked the post office for our mail - yeah it was there. Had a cuppa then the others arrived. They had to let some air out of their tyres.

A chap wandered by and he saw the Tassie numberplates. He then saw Ron and said he knew him as he lived near them in Bridport. He also knew Mike - what a small world.

Everyone was ready so we headed off. Across the Nullagine River - no water, just some ‘flowers’.

Onto Skull Springs Road and headed eastward. Lots of purple Mulla Mulla flowers by the road.

Luckily the grader has been over the road so it isn’t too bad. They had rain recently and you can still see where people did the wrong thing and drove on the road when it was too wet.

Lunch at the old ‘Hand Pump’ by a dry creek. The pastoralist has a bore and tank water is available for the cattle here. I still have phone reception with it connected to the big aerial.

Continued on a bit then turned down the track to head to some pending leases that we previously detected in 2016. Passed some campers with a big trailer etc but continued on across the creek which the other chap wouldn't have gotten his rig through.

Along the track then cleared some trees in the dry creek bed we have to traverse. As we came over the rise to the site of the old mining centre (lots of old equipment and rubbish still here) we spotted to vehicles parked up so we continued on over the hill and parked up there. We like all this area so there is plenty of good ground to wander over.

No phone reception here but Anne has her Starlink which is very handy but a bit too dear for us to have all the time ($179/month plus the cost of the unit). She had given us the password so the phone and laptop link to it whenever she has it on, hence I got a phone call from Kaylene. She is slowly feeling better from the flu so we had a lovely long chat. Heading to Wagga Wagga in a month for Ian and Gail’s daughter’s wedding.

I didn’t want to go detecting so Steve took the 6000 out for a walk.

He had a nice time on the top of a hill.

The others went out wandering later once the heat had dropped at bit. 

Steve made a nice quartz fireplace and got the fire going for drinks as the sun lowered and it cooled off. It got to 36 degrees in the camper today. The flies aren’t too bad either but I still put up my ‘fish/chip’ strips to knock them off our backs as we walk into the camper.

Nice breeze too so it was very comfortable outside. Watched the satellites zoom across the sky full of stars. Got a bit chilly after dinner (Gove Spanish Mackerel & vegies) so I had to put my flanny shirt on!